mary ellen caroll can answer that. >> yes. so we made reference to a linkage center and we will have people who are experiencing substance abuse disorder, they can link up with the department of public health resources. they can link with community based organization resources and treatment. we can find out where they are in the housing system if they need housing and we can also meet them where they are with some basic hygiene, food. we really want people to -- this is really intended to be a warm intervention with people to engage people. i think i can tell you personally and i think a lot of people feel frustrated with the lack of intervention and the lack of ways to intervene with people who are suffering on the street. and so this is a place that we can pull people in and get them warm, get them dry. get them fed and have them connected to all of the many services and resources that the city has. >> question: [ indiscernible ] >> answer: yes. it is voluntary. people can come in on their own. people will also be given choi

mary ellen caroll can answer that. >> yes.de reference to a linkage center and we will have people who are experiencing substance abuse disorder, they can link up with the department of public health resources. they can link with community based organization resources and treatment. we can find out where they are in the housing system if they need housing and we can also meet them where they are with some basic hygiene, food. we really want people to -- this is really intended to be a warm intervention with people to engage people. i think i can tell you personally and i think a lot of people feel frustrated with the lack of intervention and the lack of ways to intervene with people who are suffering on the street. and so this is a place that we can pull people in and get them warm, get them dry. get them fed and have them connected to all of the many services and resources that the city has. >> question: [ indiscernible ] >> answer: yes. it is voluntary. people can come in on their own. people will also be given choices. so t

mary ellen carol. all of us have been working in the last 24 hours with our state and federal partners at cdc and the state department of health to determine whether this indeed is the first case of omicron that has been detected and that has indeed been the result of our work overnight. i want to acknowledge our health officer dr. susan philip. but i also want to emphasize this is not a surprise. for those of you who knew, we thought omicron was already here. we just hadn't detected it yet. so this is cause for concern, but it's also certainly not a cause for panic. we are prepared in the city for this with regard to the case itself. the person recently traveled to south africa and they did the right thing and got tested and reported their travel history. they had mild symptoms and thankfully recovered. contacts have been notified by the health department. and, again, here's what we know now. san francisco is relatively well positioned to respond to variants. our vaccine rate is high. more boosters ar

mary ellen caroll can answer that. >> yes. so we made reference to a linkage center and we will have people who are experiencing substance abuse disorder, they can link up with the department of public health resources. they can link with community based organization resources and treatment. we can find out where they are in the housing system if they need housing and we can also meet them where they are with some basic hygiene, food. we really want people to -- this is really intended to be a warm intervention with people to engage people. i think i can tell you personally and i think a lot of people feel frustrated with the lack of intervention and the lack of ways to intervene with people who are suffering on the street. and so this is a place that we can pull people in and get them warm, get them dry. get them fed and have them connected to all of the many services and resources that the city has. >> question: [ indiscernible ] >> answer: yes. it is voluntary. people can come in on their own. people will also be given choi

mary ellen caroll can answer that. >> yes.enter and we will have people who are experiencing substance abuse disorder, they can link up with the department of public health resources. they can link with community based organization resources and treatment. we can find out where they are in the housing system if they need housing and we can also meet them where they are with some basic hygiene, food. we really want people to -- this is really intended to be a warm intervention with people to engage people. i think i can tell you personally and i think a lot of people feel frustrated with the lack of intervention and the lack of ways to intervene with people who are suffering on the street. and so this is a place that we can pull people in and get them warm, get them dry. get them fed and have them connected to all of the many services and resources that the city has. >> question: [ indiscernible ] >> answer: yes. it is voluntary. people can come in on their own. people will also be given choices. so there is a push pull. our in

mary ellen caroll can answer that. >> yes. so we made reference to a linkage center and we will have people who are experiencing substance abuse disorder, they can link up with the department of public health resources. they can link with community based organization resources and treatment. we can find out where they are in the housing system if they need housing and we can also meet them where they are with some basic hygiene, food. we really want people to -- this is really intended to be a warm intervention with people to engage people. i think i can tell you personally and i think a lot of people feel frustrated with the lack of intervention and the lack of ways to intervene with people who are suffering on the street. and so this is a place that we can pull people in and get them warm, get them dry. get them fed and have them connected to all of the many services and resources that the city has. >> question: [ indiscernible ] >> answer: yes. it is voluntary. people can come in on their own. people will also be given choi

mary ellen caroll can answer that. >> yes.nce to a linkage center and we will have people who are experiencing substance abuse disorder, they can link up with the department of public health resources. they can link with community based organization resources and treatment. we can find out where they are in the housing system if they need housing and we can also meet them where they are with some basic hygiene, food. we really want people to -- this is really intended to be a warm intervention with people to engage people. i think i can tell you personally and i think a lot of people feel frustrated with the lack of intervention and the lack of ways to intervene with people who are suffering on the street. and so this is a place that we can pull people in and get them warm, get them dry. get them fed and have them connected to all of the many services and resources that the city has. >> question: [ indiscernible ] >> answer: yes. it is voluntary. people can come in on their own. people will also be given choices. so there is a

mary ellen caroll can answer that. >> yes.ll have people who are experiencing substance abuse disorder, they can link up with the department of public health resources. they can link with community based organization resources and treatment. we can find out where they are in the housing system if they need housing and we can also meet them where they are with some basic hygiene, food. we really want people to -- this is really intended to be a warm intervention with people to engage people. i think i can tell you personally and i think a lot of people feel frustrated with the lack of intervention and the lack of ways to intervene with people who are suffering on the street. and so this is a place that we can pull people in and get them warm, get them dry. get them fed and have them connected to all of the many services and resources that the city has. >> question: [ indiscernible ] >> answer: yes. it is voluntary. people can come in on their own. people will also be given choices. so there is a push pull. our intention is to b

today by supervisor matt haney as well as the director of the department of emergency management mary ellen caroldepartment of public health behavioral health director dr. hillary kunis and we are also joined by our police chief bill scott. i

today by supervisor matt haney as well as the director of the department of emergency management mary ellen caroldepartment of public health behavioral health director dr. hillary kunis and we are also joined by our police chief bill scott.

for the city has been working with mary ellen carol from d.e.m. and supervisors and others on what they're going to do in place of that. so it's still in the planning phases and i don't have a time frame for that. >> thank you very much for that answer, chief. again, it was just part of the curiosity as to how that fits with the fire department. again, thank you for the clarity. i knew it was d.e.m., but also the department of technology is apart of that jurisdiction and responsibility and do we need the fire department. i assume you have a direct link on that as well. >> yes. we've been included in the discussion. >> thank you very much. madam president. >> president: thank you, mr. vice president. any commissioners have further -- commissioner covington. i like the pin. it always gets my attention on the grid. thank you. >> commissioner: thank you for calling me. and thank you chief o'connor for your very first presentation. congratulations on your new position and your presentation was very good. i wanted you to just spend a few minutes talking

i also heard this promise from mary ellen carol who i have worked with over the last couple of years weekly and pretty much trust her when she tells me something because she's never lied to me. i want to get that all on the record. that is important in how i vote today. thank you for that. my second question to the appropriate person to answer this, i very much believe because we're getting hundreds of e-mails from our constituents saying this. if you read all of the press from the mayor announcing this major effort in the tenderloin, she has left the impression and has said it, i believe, that she will have police officers approach people that are very sick on the streets and say, rer offering you treatment and if you don't go to treatment, we're going to arrest you and put you in jail right now. is that how this plan is going to work? >> thank you, supervisor. that is not how the plan is being constructed and developed. our -- what we've been doing and we've been working since mid-november to try to accelerate and plan for what we could do in the tenderloin. our emphasis for the pe

better and so i also look forward to working with the mayor and look forward to working with mary ellen carolrector carol and her team and dr. colfax and his team. we also need to be emphasizing people to do more boosters at this point. we have a good percentage compared to the rest of the country but how are we going to do that if lines are around the block if we don't have the staffing there. i know we can adjust it at this moment and i as supervisor melgar said earlier, this is something that needs to happen, it needs to happen yesterday and so working with the department of emergency management and department of public health. they cannot handle this surge right now. but it's just not enough right now. so we're seeking to establish something not at mosconi center because we can't, conventions are back, but we believe a smaller site on a smaller department head level basis to have the coordination that we've had previously to handle this surge and, with that, colleagues, the rest i submit. >> clerk: thank you, supervisor safai. supervisor stefani. >> supervisor stefani: submit. >> clerk: t

today by supervisor matt haney as well as the director of the department of emergency management mary ellen carole department of public health behavioral health director dr. hillary kunis and we are also joined by our police chief bill scott. i am here with

mary ellen carol. and the state department of health to determine whether this indeed is the first case of omicron that has been detected and that has indeed been the result of our work overnight. i want to acknowledge our health officer dr. susan philip. but i also want to emphasize this is not a surprise. for those of you who knew, we thought omicron was already here. we just hadn't detected it yet. so this is cause for concern, but it's also certainly not a cause for panic. we are prepared in the city for this with regard to the case itself. the person recently traveled to south africa and they did the right thing and got tested and reported their travel history. they had mild symptoms and thankfully recovered. contacts have been notified by the health department. and, again, here's what we know now. san francisco is relatively well positioned to respond to variants. our vaccine rate is high. more boosters are going into arms every day. 5-11-year-olds are getting vaccinated at rapid uptake. our mask

today by supervisor matt haney as well as the director of the department of emergency management mary ellen carolvioral health director dr. hillary kunis and we are also joined by our police chief bill scott. i am here with our various leaders in san francisco to officially declare a state of emergency in the

excuse me, director mary ellen carol. so i just wanted to let you know that that has opened this morning and, again, it will continue to evolve, but certainly a good start this morning. and then, i'm happy to answer any specific questions around the rather detailed covid information that's provided in the report and/or i can go to the update and answer any questions after that. thank you. commissioner president, you're on mute. >> president bernal: i see no one on the comment line, so commissioners, with your agreement, we can move directly into the covid-19 update. director of health dr. grant colfax. >> director: thank you, president bernal, commissioners. i'm happy to have a further discussion. next slide just to emphasize, we continue to be in the most severe surge. yet, this is our case rate, 192 per 100,000 far above our prior surge of 42.8 this last winter and this certainly reflects our u.s. trends shown here in the insert. next slide. with regard to our testing and positivity rate. there are a couple of points i'

better and so i also look forward to working with the mayor and look forward to working with mary ellen carolrector carol and her team and dr. colfax and his team. we also need to be emphasizing people to do more boosters at this point. we have a good percentage compared to the rest of the country but how are we going to do that if lines are around the block if we don't have the staffing there. i know we can adjust it at this moment and i as supervisor melgar said earlier, this is something that needs to happen, it needs to happen yesterday and so working with the department of emergency management and department of public health. they cannot handle this surge right now. but it's just not enough right now. so we're seeking to establish something not at mosconi center because we can't, conventions are back, but we believe a smaller site on a smaller department head level basis to have the coordination that we've had previously to handle this surge and, with that, colleagues, the rest i submit. >> clerk: thank you, supervisor safai. supervisor stefani. >> supervisor stefani: submit. >> clerk: t

better and so i also look forward to working with the mayor and look forward to working with mary ellen carolrector carol and her team and dr. colfax and his team. we also need to be emphasizing people to do more boosters at this point. we have a good percentage compared to the rest of the country but how are we going to do that if lines are around the block if we don't have the staffing there. i know we can adjust it at this moment and i as supervisor melgar said earlier, this is something that needs to happen, it needs to happen yesterday and so working with the department of emergency management and department of public health. they cannot handle this surge right now. but it's just not enough right now. so we're seeking to establish something not at mosconi center because we can't, conventions are back, but we believe a smaller site on a smaller department head level basis to have the coordination that we've had previously to handle this surge and, with that, colleagues, the rest i submit. >> clerk: thank you, supervisor safai. supervisor stefani. >> supervisor stefani: submit. >> clerk: t

today by supervisor matt haney as well as the director of the department of emergency management mary ellen carol the department of public health behavioral health director dr. hillary kunis and we are also

today by supervisor matt haney as well as the director of the department of emergency management mary ellen carolment of public health behavioral health director dr. hillary kunis and we are also joined by o